Ways to get LO ready for new baby?

belle785

I am way far out on this but I wanted to ask if you have more than one, did you do anything to prepare the oldest for the 2nd (or 3rd, etc) baby? Our son has a bunch of stuffed animals that he calls his "babies" and when I ask him if mommy has a baby, he points to my belly and rubs it. It is the sweetest thing but I don't want him to feel left out as we go through this process and eventually bring LO home.

BTW, all looks good with new baby.. We saw the h/b on Thursday. DH and I are very excited but VERY nervous.

sportsmomma

We bought books, talked about babies often, pointed them out at daycare/in public, called the baby "our baby" and he really understood more than I thought he would. He kissed my belly before me saying goodbye in the mornings and goodnight !

Now that she's here we had her bring him some presents (big brother teddy bear, fisher price doctors kit and FP zoo talkers monkey family) when he visited hospital. I do my best to never blame the baby for why I'm unavailable to him. We still call the baby "our baby". Meet let him help by getting burp rags, diapers etc.

He'll probably surprise you with how much he gets it! Good luck mama!

Oasismomma

We've been talking about the baby in Mommy's belly a lot, he knows his brother's name and that he'll be coming to live with us soon. We started adjusting his routine at home so that DH does more of the bath/bedtime stuff, so he doesn't associate any changes (less Mommy time) with the baby.

I have a Big Brother bag for him that I've started filling with treats "from the baby." He's getting his own baby boy doll, so he can take care of his baby when I'm preoccupied taking care of "our" baby. He's also getting a big brother book and an activity book with crayons.

I'm anticipating rough moments and days, but our goal is to keep his routine as stable as possible.

Jen4033

I still have yet to see how my approach will work, but DH & I have usually referred to the baby as "the baby" vs "my baby" or "mommy's baby". We try to refer to him as "your little brother". I think making it include him as much as possible might help.  When we finally settled on a name, we've been helping DS learn how to say it. I believe Day Care has been taking a similar approach, trying to make it an exciting event for him (& mommy/daddy) vs just something exciting for mommy/daddy.

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moosebaby2011

So far we've just talked to DS about the baby, and when you ask him where the baby is he will point to my belly. He also got a Big Brother book for Christmas and we've been reading that to him every day. He'll point to himself and say "brother".